Federal government allocates another billion for fiber optic expansion

The Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization (BMDS) has today initiated the next round for the expansion of fast digital communication infrastructures. While the fiber optic expansion in Germany still lags significantly behind other European countries, private companies are to bear the lion's share of this. Federal funding is only to be applied where telecommunications companies can be sure that expansion will be ruled out in the foreseeable future because it simply would not be profitable.

Here, the current funding program is now intended to allow for a shortened pre-planning phase. “With digital processes, clear standards, and flexible funding rates, we ensure that fiber optics reach exactly where the market alone is not sufficient – especially in rural and structurally weaker regions,” said Federal Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger (CDU).

At one billion euros, the volume of the 2026 funding round is large in absolute terms, but compared to the 21.7 billion euros made available for various funding programs since 2015, it is one of the smaller funding packages. In 2025, the federal government had only been able to release 1.8 billion euros in funding late, as the federal budget had been delayed due to new elections and government formation. The one billion just released is the regular funding round for 2026.

Almost 20 billion euros in funding commitments

However, for years, the funding of fast internet has been plagued by pronounced slowness: Of the 21.7 billion euros announced by the Federal Gigabit Funding Office so far, 19.5 billion have actually been “committed”, meaning they are linked to concrete funding applications. According to a spokesperson for the Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization, only about 7 billion euros have actually been settled to date. Thus, 12.5 billion euros have not yet been completed in a way that allows for settlement. This is because the “beneficiaries”, usually the municipalities, can only settle after actual completion. This leads to years of delays.

Funding decisions for one billion returned

The complexity and intricacy of federal funding have therefore also had another effect: applicants later returned 1 billion euros in funding commitments, meaning one in every 20 euros for broadband expansion was never used. The good news from the federal government's perspective: after 1.2 billion euros could finally be settled in 2024, the sum in 2025 was 1.4 billion euros – at least the fiber optic funding mountain is not growing any further at the moment. Since 2025, the funding measures have been financed from the so-called infrastructure special fund.

(wpl)